A Cambridge team has developed a breakthrough process to turn plant waste into high-performance, biocompostable cellulose packaging, with the potential to tackle the barriers of cost, scalability, and sustainability. These have have held back widespread adoption of alternatives to fossil-based plastic packaging to date and revolutionise food and consumer packaging with truly green solutions.
Fossil-based plastic packaging is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, landfill waste, and microplastic pollution. According to WRAP, the UK throws away approximately 290,000 tonnes of plastic bags and wrapping every year, with only 6% recycled.
Professors James Elliott, Ruth Cameron, Serena Best and their team at the University of Cambridge have developed a novel electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process that enables production of cellulose-based films from abundant plant waste, offering a sustainable and high-performance alternative to conventional plastics. The films are compostable, provide strong moisture and oxygen barriers, and leave no lasting waste – addressing both regulatory and market demands for greener packaging.
“Our EPD process offers a realistic pathway to replacing fossil-based plastic films in food and consumer care applications.”
The EPD process could achieve scale in production to make cellulose films, together with the properties necessary to retain product freshness, both in current cellulose markets (e.g. vegetables, dairy, and bakery products) and in new markets such as meat and fish packaging, which are not met by current cellulose packaging. The EPD technology would solve the scalability problem by enabling one-step fabrication and the process also has the potential for continuous production. This approach also removes the need for substantial water evaporation, which is time-consuming, energy-intensive, and costly. In addition to the abundant source of the waste cellulose starting material, the EPD process of manufacture does not require harsh chemicals.